Kannapolis Stumbles in Seventh Inning, Fall to Woodpeckers 9-1 Tuesday

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Despite jumping out to an early advantage over the visiting Fayetteville Woodpeckers, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers fell apart on the mound in the seventh inning, dropping the series opener Tuesday 9–1 at Atrium Health Ballpark.

RHP Kevin Folman returned from a stint at High-A Winston-Salem to make the start on the mound Tuesday night, eating through three shutout innings, allowing two walks and one hit. Despite the lack of strikeouts, the former North Dakota State Bison kept the Woodpeckers off the scoreboard. RHP Kohl Simas relieved Folman in the fourth, continuing his dominance with three shutout innings, tallying three punchouts and allowing just one hit.

RHP Rhett Kouba made his second start of the year for the Woodpeckers, cleaning through the Cannon Ballers lineup early with seven punchouts in four frames, allowing three hits and one run while walking none. RHP Spencer Brockhouse entered in the fifth, working one clean inning with one punchout. Winning pitcher RHP Spencer Arrighetti (W, 2-0) followed up Brockhouse by tossing a clean inning in the sixth.

Kannapolis opened the scoring in Tuesday’s pitchers duel in the bottom of the fourth with a Shawn Goosenberg solo home run to left field off Kouba, giving the Ballers a 1-0 lead.

The Woodpeckers charged back in the top of the seventh with a seven-run inning. Michael Sandle got the party started with a solo home run to left field to knot the ballgame at 1-1. Later in the frame, after LHP Garvin Alston (L, 3-3) allowed two base hits and a walk, Victor Mascai walked with the bases loaded, allowing Jordan Brewer to cross the plate and give Fayetteville a 2-1 advantage. Chad Stevens added a bases-loaded walk of his own to make it 3-1, with Quincy Hamilton scoring on the free pass. Kobe Kato followed with a two-RBI single to allow Nerio Rodriguez and Mascai to score and grow the Woodpecker lead to 5-1. Two more crossed the plate on bases loaded walks to Brewer and Hamilton, completing the frame at seven runs on four hits.

Yet another run for Fayetteville scored in the top of the eighth on a Joey Loperfido sacrifice fly, scoring Will Wagner to make it 8-1 in favor of the visiting Woodpeckers.

Mascai tallied his second RBI of the night in the top of the ninth, driving in Brewer to grow the Fayetteville lead to 9-1.

The Cannon Ballers will look to rebound Wednesday in the second of six games this week with the Woodpeckers. RHP Sean Burke (0-1, 5.79 ERA) is scheduled to deliver the first pitch of the ballgame at 7:00 p.m. for Kannapolis, with Fayetteville planning to toss out RHP Elian Rodriguez (1-2, 4.57 ERA).

Tickets can be purchased for any remaining home games at kcballers.com or at the F&M Bank Box Office located at Atrium Health Ballpark. Fans can also keep up with the action on the team’s social media outlets, with live in-game updates being provided on twitter at @kcannonballers.